PENON Quattro- Bluishly Smooth
Penon is a well-known manufacturer of iems and cables. They are based out of China and I have been exposed to a small number of their iems like Penon Fan (I still own it ), Penon Serial and Penon Volt. Their cables and connectors are top notch as usual. They have established themselves as a store and as a manufacturer.
While Penon’s core signature comes up easily in the Penon Fan, Penon Serial and Penon Volt iems with different emphasis on different parts of the sound signature, I am excited to try this new iem.
COMING ON TO THE PACKAGING—When I got the iem, I didn’t get much; it was just the iems and the cable with no tips. I have listed out what should be present in the packaging so you can check it up properly.
TECHNICALITIES-
The QUATTRO uses an independent 3-way crossover and 3-independent conduit design for better layering performance.
- Low frequency uses the latest horizontally opposed dual low-frequency driver to enhance the bass effect.
- Middle frequency uses a new generation of graphene materials providing more rich details and listening.
- High frequency uses a new process that makes the sound smoother and more delicate.
SPECIFICATION
- Driver:4 Dynamic driver
- 1 x 6mm custom dynamic driver for High frequency
- 1 x 8mm graphene diaphragm for Medium frequency
- 2 x 10mm composite diaphragm for Low frequency
- Impedance: 16 Ohm
- Sensitivity: 100dB
- Frequency response: 5Hz-30kHz
- Connector: 2pin 0.78mm
- Cable length: 1.2M, with 4.4 Pentaconn connector in the sample
PACKAGE
- Penon QUATTRO
- 9 pairs of silicone ear tips (SML)
- Earphone case
- Pouch
- Brush
- Clip
WARRANTY
18 months warranty is a refresher as its better than a 1 year warranty.
BUILD-
- IEMS-
- These are made of resin and that just shines through with the blue-coloured iems. They are light and have a grill on the nozzle. The nozzle wasn’t too big to hurt my ears. They have 2 vents which are covered with grills and also coloured red and blue to indicate the R and L iems.
- They fit me well like a lock and key and didn’t move at all. I have averagely sized ears (I use L and ML-sized eartips).
- CABLE-
- The cable enhances the iem’s presence with its complementary blue colour. I didn’t get any cable noise while moving around with the iems and they had pentaconn connector which also looks strong. The cable is heavy, but not as much as EA 8W cable.
DISCLAIMER-
The Penon Quattro is part of a review tour organised by A.G and @Penon in my country. The sample belongs to the brand. I had the opportunity to listen to it for 7 days for the purpose of this review. This review is completely based on my experience with it, and all opinions, positive or negative, are my own and no one else’s. No external factors influence my review; only internal factors like my brain and heart influence it . Please try it yourself, if possible, since we all hear things differently. If you want to purchase it, you can buy it from the official product website from the link. PENON QUATTRO
SOME CONSIDERATIONS-
Source- laptop on battery with the Qobuz beta app and WASPI exclusive and direct mode being used, and also my phone with the Qobuz app set to High Res.
DAC used - PAW S1, no Efx Mode and 4.4 pentaconn cable being used to power them.
AMP – Topping A30s (Burson v5i added) and Xduoo mt 602 with Sylvania 1954 tubes was used to test out whether it was being underpowered and what interactions do I see.
Tips used are as follows: I dont remember their other 2 names but if i do i will add it here. But i settled on the CP 100 (red stem) ones as they were the best sounding and fiiting my ears perfectly.
REVIEW-
Usually, most reviews are based on the sound profile of an iem. But I want to change the format a bit and focus on the song and sound profile so I think it would make it much easier to understand what I am talking about.
So, keeping the legendary sound range of the human ear the same – we begin from the lower end of the spectrum i.e.
BASS and SUB-BASS
The song to be focused here, is
FLIP- Glass Animals – Zaba.
It focuses on the beats of the drums with a small percussion working at the same to reach the same note density (I mean the sound volume/ intensity here). It easily distinguishes the instruments even though they are tonally different.
Next, we begin something which has a lot of percussive items along with big drums (like used in ancient tribal areas)- The song being used is -
Woodfall Temple (Theophany).
Hearing the different big drums along with different percussive instruments leads me to believe that they are quite tonally distinct and easily felt through the song. The big drum hits at the beginning needs to have a bit more extension in its hit but was appropriate in the body of the note of the drum.
Next we shall see something with sub-bass- Here we going to use a famous track from
Hans Zimmer – Why So Serious, check from 3:29 Minutes and you would know what I am talking about.
The sub-bass even though felt but felt a bit dampened. The body is coming through but the extensions seem to be a bit lacking and the thickness is a bit less. Penon seems to be focused on quality over quantity in this iem and separation is a more important factor, but I want a bit more of the sub-bass extension and body.
MIDS, VOCALS, LAYERING AND SEPARATION-
This works together, you have most of the body of notes of instruments in the mids, vocals compete with the instruments and thus what we expect is a certain degree of layering and separation between them. Hence all need to work together to provide some degree of accuracy and musicality.
Let’s, start with vocals-
For Female vocals- Midnight at the Oasis – Renne Olstead and Uninvited- Alanis Morisettee; For male vocals – Circle of life – Carmen Twillie and Aint no Mountain high enough- II Divo.
Both vocals are epic, they are quite distinct even between multiple singers. Small sounds like lip smacks also come through easily. The high notes that the artists reach, are maintained but might require a bit more height in the soundstage. Female vocalist’s ssss sounds are handled beautifully and come through really well. I love the female vocals here, they seem appropriate, and the thickness of the voice is spot-on. For Male vocals, I might require a bit more thickness.
There are many songs I went through for the MIDS, Separation, and Layering- Instruments are lovely. They have a good body and tonality doesn’t seem to suffer from multiple instruments in the sound stage. The notes are a bit on the less thick side but probably done to establish the separation between the notes as they are quite easily detectable. I love the separation on this set; even far away instruments come through (check the saxophone/ trumpets in
Tonight Tonight song – going at the left ear slowly increasing in the volume). The heights of the notes of different instruments seem a bit similar, ie they aren't reaching too high on the soundstage. But don’t worry, the notes horizontal and vertical spread is great so they won't seem congested. Tonality is slightly on the warmer side to help handle the upper mids and with this, even the harshest songs will be easily tolerable. Layering on an X-Y axis is good and easily separates multiple instruments, which can't be said for the Y-Z axis and X-Z axis; even though separated, the instruments feel way too near to each other.
HIGHS-
Use TANK! (Flix Mix)– COWBOY BEPOP / Moanin’ – Tommy Igoe and the Birdland big band - This iem is for those who want a smooth experience in the highs. This iem smoothed out the highs easily yet keeps a lot of energy in them. They are quite well separated and not thick or cause ear pain on long-term listening (at least 2 hours in my case). They reach good heights on the soundstage and are not too thick. The body of the notes is average but the separation here is also something that specifies quality. This iem does separation in a completely different way. But the tonality and horizontal layering is quite good and accentuate the clarity of the items.
Now let's see how this fares with an improved cable
Effect audio Ares S 8W (UP-OCC Pure Copper Litz cable)-
I would be going through the same songs as mentioned above and would give a short overview of the interaction between the iem and the cable ( I do listen to both songs on the stock and the cable being tested to compare, keeping the volume indicator nearly same unless a bit more is required to hear).
Power requirement- I used PAW S1 to compare with the stock cable. A volume indicator of 48 works well with the stock cable, but with the Effect audio cable, it’s 55, and both are being used with High gain. So, it’s a slight bit more extra notches on the volume wheel.
With external amps, it’s a slight increase in my SS amp (A30 with v5i ), but with my hybrid amp ( Xduoo mt602 with Sylvania tubes) it doesn’t require much increase.
Changes that were observed- The first thing I noticed was that the notes reach higher heights in the head-stage with the body of the notes being more enhanced. There was more presence of notes of instruments, and it was more musical. Bass felt more articulate and has good extensions. Sub-bass was slightly more enhanced. Vocals were also equally affected by being more energetic and reaching higher note sizes on the head-stage. The highs felt to have become energetic but not sharp making the music more enjoyable. A Single pull of guitar strings is more enhanced and separated (check Stampede- Alexander Jean) Nuances are also better heard among the music.
Overall, would I recommend this cable. Well as a compliment to the iem nope, but as an upgrade to the iem yes, this cable achieves the energy that I felt was a bit missing in the iem mostly in the high-end and bass extension. Even nuances are better heard so clarity takes a good raise too. I am loving this cable upgrade to the iem.
Verdict- It does vary from the Penon Signature sound that i have listened to, but this is a refresher. The sound feels matured and smooth and a simple cable upgrade makes it a much better iem alltogether. I recommend this, yes but do save for a cable upgrade or if you have good silver or UPOCC copper litz cable.